Camping la Rouviere — Hotel in Largentière

We arrive at 1730 on Friday 16th May, 2014, to find no-one at reception, despite the sign saying open until 1800. No problem, I walk down to the canoe rental place by the river and chat to the super-friendly guy hauling kayaks about, who gives us the code for the gate and tells us to pitch our tent anywhere (it is pretty quiet at the moment, low season), and check in tomorrow morning. The location is beautiful, we make camp under the shadow of the soaring limestone cliffs across the river and cook dinner. The place is almost deserted, and as it gets dark we turn in for what looks like a very quiet night's sleep. At about 2130, however, the music starts.||||Further down the beach, a big group of teenagers - maybe 30 or 40 - have a pair of very large speakers pointed towards the huge cave in the cliffs opposite (I know this because I see them, with a young guy sleeping next to them, as I walk up the river with my dog the next morning) - the acoustics are incredible, we can hear every drum hit and every rumble of bass. It'd be a perfect venue for a music festival.||||At around 0100 in the morning, the music stops, to be replaced by the guy with the guitar playing everyone his three chords. There is singing, there is tribal drumming on the canoes, there is tinny music from a handful of car stereos. There is no sleep. Eventually, at around 0300, the crowd disperses, and we are finally given some peace - except for the six young guys who wander over to the beach below our tent skimming stones and chatting until 0730, when they drag a few canoes around to make beds for themselves to pass out in.||||At this point, I have to admit our own fault - when I check in at 0845, I don't say anything about the music coming from the campsite next door. Naively, I assume that someone, anyone - hopefully a member of staff from either this campsite or next door - will have noticed the ridiculous level of noise last night, and something will have been done about it. Having checked in, I wander up to the shower blocks, hoping for a soothing hot shower to prepare me for the day, but cold water spews from the jets, and only for as long as you keep your hand pressed on the button, making washing difficult. I remember a time when hot water was something of a rare luxury on campsites, but those days are long gone (especially in this price bracket).||||We enjoy our day, soaking up the knowledge at the Chauvet Cave museum and strolling around Vallon, before heading back to the campsite in the afternoon to lounge around in the river. We take the short walk up the beach to the Pont d'Arc, a truly incredible sight, and we lazily float back down the river in our inflatable rubber ring under a brilliant blue sky. As we near our tent, we pass the large group of teenagers staying at the campsite next door, playing in the river, jumping off the rocks opposite. The speakers, silent for the moment, are still there, facing the cave in the cliff. I shudder at the thought, but I am certain that the truly astounding events of last night won't be repeated.||||We get dressed and drive to Vallon to eat dinner at a brilliant Thai restaurant and, well-fed, we head back to the campsite. As we drive down to the gate, we can hear the music already. "You have got to be joking," my girlfriend says, but it obviously isn't a joke - it's not very funny. We sit in our folding chairs with a mug of river-chilled rosé wine, reading by the light of our head torches under a starry sky for half an hour, hoping for an early finish to the music, but eventually we give up and crawl into our tent.||||If I had a pen and paper handy, I could have written down the name of almost every track they played for the next four hours. The music seems louder and clearer tonight, and I find myself wondering if they have switched to a bigger and better sound system. The crowd, too, sounds bigger - I'd put their number at around 60 or 70 tonight - they cheer and whoop, their cries echoing around the natural amphitheatre. They sing along to the music. Every now and then I stick my head out of the tent to see what's going on, and I am amazed to find the cliffs towering over us illuminated by a laser-and-light show. This is not just a group of teenagers having an impromptu party, this is an event that someone has spent time planning.||||Part of me thinks "Why don't you just down the rest of that bottle of rosé and join in...", but that's not what we are on holiday for. I'll mention at this point that I've done a lot of work at music festivals, catering backstage mostly, and I am used to camping and sleeping through the most incredible levels of noise. But at a music festival you are prepared for it - on the edge of a nature reserve, you expect your campsite to be a little quieter.||||At 0130, the music stops, and we are given a repeat of last night's show - hours of the guitar, the tribal drumming on canoes, the muffled music of car stereos, the a capella singing. As happens after events such as these, small groups of people slowly drift away from the epicentre to find a quiet place in the shadows to stand around laughing and joking. One such group stands thirty metres from our tent, and at 0515 I stick my head out to request, loudly but quite politely given the circumstances, for them to shut their mouths, in a mixture of English and French. "Oh, better move along," the group chortle, "We've annoyed the English!"||||At 0530, the noise has dropped enough for us to drift into a fitful sleep.||||Early in the morning, we pack up our tent and drive to the front gate, and I am waiting at reception as the lady arrives to open up. My French isn't perfect, but I give her the basic rundown of the above story as best as I can.||"Ah, yes, it's always a problem at the weekends..." she sighs.||"But if it's a regular problem, why didn't you mention anything yesterday morning when we checked in!" I reply.||"But you didn't complain about the previous night's noise, either..." She has a point. We should have complained.||"You obviously don't stay on the camping overnight, then? Is there a member of staff who does?" I ask.||"Yes, we have a very reliable man who stays in this house right here," the owner says, waving his hand at the building next to us. He has arrived after learning of our complaint.||"Can we speak to him about the noise of the last two nights?" I ask.||"No," the owner replies. "He is sleeping."||||Their argument is that because the noise came from the beach below the campsite next door, it isn't their problem. We posit that because you could hear the music loud and clear from hundreds of metres away and that they have had the same thing happen in the past, apparently on a regular basis, that it is a problem that they need to address. We refuse to pay the full price. The owner threatens to call the police, taking a photograph of our car numberplate. We agree that he should. My girlfriend stays at reception talking to the girl on the desk, whilst the owner and I walk down to where we pitched our tent, and I indicate where the worst of the problems were. There are still teenagers passed out on the beach below our tent. Others have stolen canoes from the long line of them stacked at the top of the beach and are floating around lazily on the river. A dying campfire, lit at around 0130 to the sound of raucous singing, smoulders in the centre of a cluster of tents, a hundred metres from where we were camped.||||The owner and I walk back to reception. We are given a discount of 25% - thirty euros for these two horrible nights is still disgustingly overpriced, but we are desperate to leave this terrible campsite and carry on with our holiday. We find instead a wonderful campsite just across the river from Vallon, and enjoy our remaining three days in this beautiful place.||||In short, I recommend the area of the Ardeche Gorge without reservation, but steer clear of Camping La Rouviere at the weekend, unless you are looking for a rave with...

We booked this through with an internet package and were aware that we would probably not have the best cabin or location, but everything exceeded our expectations!l Just some advice to find it in case you DO go, it is quite further away from most of the other companies, following the course of the river. The location itself is alright, though. The cleanliness of the place was a disaster: blood stains on the pillow, hairs, uncomfortable mattresses that barely fit in the small rooms, cold and dirty shower. The biggest joke is that we were supposed to clean after us!||||Anyway, we arrived pretty late and, obviously, there were people enjoying themselves chatting outside and drinking some beers. Perfectly alright, as we are also young. However, since our arrival we noticed very loud music from an unknown direction, but really nearby. There was a full blast party going on, with the speakers at max as in a concert (but with lousy music instead) that lasted...until 07.45!!!!!! Totally impossible to sleep. Out of 4 people only 1 could manage to sleep - she is a pro. At some point during the night, at 05.30, I tried calling the reception "emergency" phone number (voicemail directly!! ).||||The next morning we learnt from staff at the bar (25 meters away from our cabin) that a group had booked the evening to an enormous group and they were -apparently- allowed to do whatever they liked. They were surprised nobody informed us (I had called the same day and there was no mention). No apologies or kindness was proposed for our breakfast that we had there nevertheless, being in the middle of nowhere with no choice. ||||After that we went to the reception to be greeted by a blond receptionist. We explained everything and got for a reply: "Oh, nobody informed you? The reservation fee and taxes are 14.50 euros". No "please", or apologies, nothing. I work in the hospitality business and I have nether seen anything like this. Everything else was prepaid and we where kayaking after, so there was nothing...

Al ruime tijd geleden hadden we een oogje laten vallen voor de Pont D'Arc. dus zoals meermaals per jaar tijd om een camping te zoeken. deze camping zag er prijs kwaliteit ok uit en we stuurden een mail met 2 specifieke vragen... 1 of we een plak konden krijgen aan de rand van het water en of er een wifi verbinding aanwezig was. al snel kregen we bericht dat er een plekje vrij was maar over wifi stond er geen antwoord. dan nogmaals teruggezonden met de zelfde vraag en kregen we antwoord dat er wifi is maar niet overal... ok kunnen we inkomen en een uurtje op een wifi hotspot gaan zitten is geen probleem. dus boeken maar...||dan was het zover aangekomen op de camping bleek er niemand aanwezig. dan maar op zoek iets verder aan de bar waar we de eigenares vonden. vriendelijk vonden we het niet maar ok... terug int bureau begon ze onze reservatie op te zoeken en was er een telefoon... blijkbaar een probleem met andere ontevreden klanten... dan kregen we ons plaatnummer... maar dit is toch niet aan de rand van het water merkte ik op... jah ze bleek van heel hoog te vallen en wist van niks. ik snel mailkes ophalen en idd ze had geantwoord... klaarblijkelijk geërgerd dat ik bewijs had, kreeg ik een afsnauwend antwoord dat er geen andere plaats is... en dat ik ook zicht opt water heb... dus ik moest genoegen nemen met deze plek... ondertussen stelde ik dan maar 2 de vraag WIFI... ja die is er maar niet altijd... ik vroeg hoe werkt het... kreeg ik opnieuw een antwoord zonder er 1 te zijn op nogal onvriendelijke manier... kortom wifi is er gewoon niet (later komen we te weten dat deze pas geplaatst zal worden eind juli) dus voelden we ons al bedrogen nog voor dat we onze tent opgezet hadden. en dan zonder verdere uitleg over de camping wat waar is moesten we maar ons plekje gaan zoeken. tent opgezet en ok gewoon alles vergeten en genieten. tot die eerste nacht... om 1.00 tot 4.00 begonnen jongeren met kayakjes te spelen. Ok kan gebeuren we slapen wel wat uit... wel vergeet het want da kayakverhuur begint ook vroeg en tussen da busjes groepjes kayakers die overal tussen lopen en de kayaks zelf was de stilte snel weg... goed met kleine oogjes dan maar op uitstap. 2de nacht omt kort te houden omdat dit verhaal blijkbaar al meer verteld is... opnieuw feestende jongeren met gitaar en al het nodige muziek opnieuw tot 4 uur wakker geweest... even melden en wat viel ze van hoog... ze zou het eens nakijken (wetende dat dit daar gewoon vaste routine is) nacht 3 idem tot na nacht 4 ik gemeld heb dat ik eerder wens te vertrekken... zonder boe of ba een excuus of gesprek kregen we 1 nacht terug betaald en de melding dat we snel moesten opkrassen... onbeleefdheid en arrogantie op en top. gesproken met de "security" (enigste beleefde van de bende trouwens) blijkt dit routine en is de bazin niet bereid er iets aan te doen... die jongeren brengen meer op die met 10 op 1 plek komen dan gezinnen of koppels. want zelf in de kantine ist feest tot 3 of 4 uur... we wisten dus genoeg... en waren blij dat we vertrokken want met 9 uur autosnelweg int zicht kon ik nie nog eens zo een nacht aan... ||en das nog maar de 'nacht'rust.||sanitair gewoon vuil... modern maar vuil... die toiletten altijd smerig... douches vol aarde en zand... en ja das de schuld van de gasten... maar moesten ze eens trekkers plaatsen kunnen we deze tenminste zelf ook wat opkuisen... ||en dan restaurant... jah een kok die met zijn deegroller staat te gooien buiten en deze enkele keren laat vallen om enkele dames te imponeren en met pizzadeeg buiten staat te zwieren en dan maar even vanalles vastneemt... en terug zijn deeg pakt... hygiënisch is echt ver te zoeken... en dan de ketchup en mayo die beide half jaar over tijd zijn... vroeg ik mij af of die steak tartaar die trouwens wel lekker was... wel veilig zou zijn... ||kortom... vriendelijkheid (vooral van de eigenares) dikke 0 rust 0 properheid 0 enkel de locatie maakt iets goed. een camping die zijn 3 sterren nie waard is en mij zien ze daar zeker nooit meer terug... is zijn geld en...